1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an outputting apparatus for outputting characters and graphics such as printers, plotters or the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventional outputting apparatus for outputting characters and graphics such as printers and plotters is composed of an input buffer for temporarily storing data inputted from outside, a data processing unit for sequentially fetching data from the input buffer, separating them into controlling codes and data for characters and graphics and analyzing them, and an outputting unit for displaying or printing characters and graphics in accordance with output signals outputted from the data processing unit.
The input buffer is simply a storage for temporarily storing inputted data. As a result, such data as stored in the input buffer are lost once they were fetched for processing. Therefore, it becomes necessary to input anew data strings consisting of the same characters, graphic data, controlling codes and others at each time when the same character strings and graphics previously inputted should repeatedly be used for outputting.
In a system such as POS and information terminals which require repeated outputs of the same character strings and graphics, the load on the side of its host system to transfer data becomes greater because the data strings having exactly the same characters, graphics data, controlling codes and others are inputted as required at each time, and the processing efficiency of the host system is lowered.
Also, if the speed with which data are transferred from a host system to the outputting apparatus is slower than the outputting speed of the outputting apparatus, a longer period of time is required for the data transfer, and the utilization efficiency of the outputting apparatus for outputting characters and graphics is lowered.